Book Club Review #2

This month was my turn to choose some books to share with the team to keep us inspired. The two books I chose arrived quickly in their shiny smiley faced boxes and I’m very excited to share them with you.

Book #1 The Best of Brochure Design 12 – Rockport Publishers

Part of a design series by Rockport publishers, this is just one of an expansive collection of inspirational publications focusing on brochures. With submissions from various designers across the world this book celebrates the wonderful world of printed design. Often in the studio (and with many designers I’m sure!) when looking for inspiration it can be easy to turn to the internet, but I find that the results over time are a little lack lustre, finding that the same or similar examples crop up again and again.

This book is full to the brim of examples that you’re not likely to see on an average google search, showing an array of different layouts, sizes, paper finishes, bindings and folds that offer inspiration to think outside of the box. The images are strikingly large with a small blurb on each which gives a short summary and print spec for that particular job.

Looking at the number of post-it notes that are already peeping out from it’s pages I’ve no doubt it’s one of those books that will get flicked through time and time again in the studio.

I often find that every now and again I will analyse my design process and see if there are ways I can give it a bit of a spring clean and make it more efficient, particularly after a time of back to back projects with tight deadlines. This book showcases not just the work but mainly the thought processes behind them, including the rough sketches and doodles in all their scribbly glory. I love to see the initial sketches and thought processes behind a project rather than just the finished project itself. There’s something great about seeing the rough drawings and notes that happened right at the start of a project in the way that it champions the idea, rather than just the aesthetic. Not to mention that when I see the doodles of another designer it makes me feel less ashamed of my own rough scrawlings.